Vishnu as Varaha challenges the demon Hiranyaksha

Manaku of Guler’s painting The Emergence of Varaha (c. 1740 CE), part of a Bhagavata Purana series, interprets Vishnu’s boar incarnation as an explosion of raw, cosmic terror rather than a quiet rescue. Housed in the Government Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigarh, the artwork visualizes the third avatar bursting forth to reclaim the earth from the demon Hiranyaksha.Varaha emerges with terrifying dynamism, capturing a sense of overwhelming divine fury.The background is filled with flying rocks, scattered bones, hissing snakes, and a heavy shower of celestial weapons and thunder. Terrified secondary characters and minor figures scatter in panic from the blinding, raw energy of the descending deity.The reverse of the page contains nine lines of Sanskrit verse from the Third Book of the Bhagavata Purana in Devanagari script, directly anchoring the visual chaos to sacred text.